Former president Jacob Zuma has axed his defence attorney Daniel Mantsha and hired Eric Mabuza instead.

According to a statement issued by the J G Zuma Foundation, the ex-president is busy preparing for his highly anticipated corruption trial.

Advocate Muzi Sikhahane has been hired as well, tasked with assembling a 'multi-skilled legal team that will advise and assist former president Zuma in preparing for the biggest trial of his life”.

The team, according to the foundation, aims to “dispel the much-repeated and tired narrative that seeks to suggest that in previously exercising his rights, former president Zuma sought to avoid his day in court or was adopting what the State calls Stalingrad tactics.”

Business Day reports that Mabuza wouldn't clarify if this meant Zuma had abandoned his appeal attempt in the Constitutional Court, seeking a permanent stay of prosecution.

Instead, Mabuza highlight that he had been tasked with preparing for the trial. Meanwhile, Mantsha was allegedly unavailable for comment.

The Foundation had thanked the axed lawyer for his services, continuing to say that “former president Zuma has unfortunately come to the conclusion that it is in his best interests to part ways with Mr Mantsha at this stage so that he can focus more on the preparation for the trial”.

The trial will provide the nation with the opportunity to obtain some clarity over the matter at long last

“Former president Zuma, therefore, welcomes the opportunity that the upcoming trial will create for South Africans to get much-needed certainty about the bona fides of the State’s case against him as well as shed light on the much-needed certainty as to who exactly benefited from the alleged Arms Deal corruption”.